This morning I woke
up at eight o'clock, started packing, took a break to take a shower,
and then continued packing. Then I decided to run and buy new
windshield wiper blades because I've been battling the one on the
passenger side for at least a couple years and rain is expected this
weekend. I didn't want to have to worry about it while also
navigating the anxiety of doing new things in new places. I was
fairly certain I needed a 28” blade and a 14” blade. They didn't
have 14” blade in the type I was looking at so the guy “looked it
up” and told me I needed a 13” blade. So I got a 13” blade,
and shockingly it was an inch shorter than the blade I already had.
I haven't had the chance to actually try it yet but I am hoping the
lack of that inch doesn't cause any problems.
When I had all my
stuff loaded in my car I made lunch and then headed to my Mom's
house. While I ate lunch I printed off the directions to my
presentation, to weekend cabin, and from the cabin back to my house.
Originally my goal was to leave town at 11:30AM but, not
surprisingly, I didn't actually leave until noon.
The drive to the
presentation was thankfully uneventful. And, I didn't make a single
wrong turn. The conference was in a fancy hotel and when I got there
I parked out front and went in to check at the front desk about
parking. The conference had paid for valet parking so that's what I
went with. I've never used valet parking before but in sounds super
fancy. In reality it's just some teenagers and early
twenty-somethings taking your keys and parking your car.
The conference was
in the basement of the hotel and it felt a little bit like the
basement of a castle because there was a lot of stone and it was all
kind of closed in. It was a very quaint conference. Or maybe it is
a normal conference. The only ever conference I've been to is the
ALA conference, which is ridiculously big.
I texted my former
supervisor when I got there and she found me a few minutes later. We
went down to the room we were presenting in and she got the
presentation set up. The room reminded me of a really small theater.
It was very closed in and pretty cool. A little while later the guy
who I had emailed about registering late found me and we went to get
my name tag. I got a green presenter badge to put on it as well as a
golden alumni one.
We presented at two
o'clock to a decent-sized crowd. I had the script with me that I had
started writing but I ended up not looking at it. Maybe I should
have. I know I ended up skipping over a bunch of stuff. I wasn't
timing it or anything but I know I didn't make it to the ten minutes
that I was hoping for. I got some laughs though so that was good.
In the end the presentation ended up being thirty-eight minutes,
including the question portion, which lasted a decent amount of time.
So we could have gone longer but we did better than the eighteen
minutes we had during our initial dry run.
After the
presentation I talked to a couple of the attendees about it and then
sorted out my driving directions before heading back upstairs to get
my car. Valet parking sounds like a good job for stories. While I
was waiting I talked to the two valet guys a little bit. They were
talking about a really bitchy sorority lady they had just had to deal
with. They were saying they have to deal with sororities and
fraternities, as well as the parents, quite a bit. That would
definitely make the job less appealing.
The driving down to
the weekend cabin seemed to take forever. I only missed my exit
once, and it didn't set me back too much, so that was nice. On the
last stretch I was certain I had messed up again, and I may have, but
I ended up where I was supposed to so it worked out. The last
stretch of highway was also really sketchy, which maybe have been
part of the reason the whole trip seemed to take forever. It was one
of the first times I have ever followed the recommended speed on
corners. Rather than being two lanes wide, it felt like it was
closer to one and a half lanes wide. And it immediately dropped off
the edge, so if you get too close to the edge you're going to get
sucked into the ditch. I was not a fan. It was like the road
version of a rickety old wooden roller coaster.
I finally made it to
the cabins, and eventually found the right cabin, but no one was
there because they were out on the lake. And I had no idea where to
go. On top of that, I didn't have a phone signal or a connection to
a network so I couldn't Google it. I ended up stopping at a nearby
gas station and going in to see if they knew what my friend was
referring to when he told me where he was. The girl at the register
didn't but she got another worker and she was able to point me in the
right direction.
I managed to find my
friend's vehicle by the lake and about five or ten minutes later he
came to pick me up. I changed my shoes and jacket but other than
that I trusted him with my work clothes as I climbed in his boat. He
completely opened up the throttle on the way back to where he had
been fishing and I think we nearly hit 70mph, which is pretty
freaking fast on a boat. The wind caused my eyelids to flutter so
fast that it created a strobe effect with my vision. I also couldn't
feel my face by the time we stopped. It was pretty cool.
On my friend's very
first cast he got a fish, but he didn't get anything after that.
That was alright with me though because I wasn't fishing. He
continued casting and we talked for awhile until we called it a day.
We met back up with his two friends at the dock and got everything
put away. Then we stopped by the grocery store on the way back to
the cabin.
The cabin is really
nice, and it's got four bedrooms so we each get our own room (because
there are only four of us). Originally there were supposed to be
more but the others weren't able to make it. That works for me. I
had met both of his friends before and they're pretty cool guys so it
hasn't been nearly as awkward as I thought it was going to be.
We didn't get back
to the cabin until nine o'clock and I don't think we actually ate
dinner until around eleven o'clock. I ate lunch at 11:00AM so not
eating again until 11:00PM was a little rough. I've got a pretty big
headache right now and I think a lot of that has to do with not
eating. And a lack of water for most of the day. Whenever I have a
lot of driving to do I tend to hold back on the water so I'm not
having to stop every five minutes. That catches up to me by the end
of the trip, though.
It is now 12:45AM
and I'm going to bed. I am hoping to sleep off my headache. And
maybe sleep until noon. I would be okay with that.
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